“I was diagnosed with strabismus at birth. One of my eyes was severely crossed, causing a lot of strain on the eye’s muscles. I did have three corrective surgeries quite young, all before 4 years old, I think. I wasn’t a recluse or outsider, but I tended to move in between different social circles. I really vibe of off people’s energies, so it’s important for me to maintain a heavy rotation of friends.
Deciphering how isolation affected my adolescence is hard, because there are a couple metaphors I can pull from it, and a lot of things I haven’t really processed yet. Physically, I have always had a very literal barrier between others and myself with my glasses, and I think that warped my sense of dependency. I’ve always been violently independent, and that’s been fairly consistent my whole life. I’ve been brought up to believe that the only one you can rely on is yourself, which sounds like a simple enough piece of advice, but is really hard to completely comprehend. It’s something that I should have applied earlier on in life, but I only realized it in hindsight. Everything I’ve done in the last couple years has blossomed from my truest application of self-reliance and my lust to live the unlikely life.” – Pakayla Rae Biehn
Check out Erratic Phenomena’s full interview with Pakayla here:
www.erraticphenomena.com/2011/05/pakayla-biehns-unlikely-perspective.html
‘Being There’
New oil paintings from Pakayla Rae Biehn and Jeff Ramirez
On view May 21st – June 3rd
Reception with the artists:
Sat, May 21st 6-8PM
Thinkspace / 6009 Washington Blvd. in Culver City, CA / www.thinkspacegallery.com
